Race Face Releases Cinch Power Meter

Canada Cup XC Champ Evan Guthrie isn’t your typical spandex and salads weight weenie cross country racer. He races in baggies, can send it harder than most, has finished on the podium at BC Enduro Series events and hit top step on the Downtime at Singletrack6. Offered a spot on the Canadian National Team to race XC World Championships this year, he turned that down to go race the EWS Finale instead. With limited time on his “big” bike he went top 10 in a stage against the best dedicated EWS pros in the world in Italy. Nobody talked about it, but it was definitely more fun than doing six laps of a fifteen minute Worlds course down under.

Regardless of if you’re doing specific intervals or pacing yourself over an epic ride or enduro day, having accurate and instant power data is useful and valuable information. Evan eagerly signed on as one of the Cinch Power Meter testers and has been counting watts all year from the Sea Otter Short Track to the Italian singletrack. His data files helped Race Face refine our algorithms to speed up and improve accuracy and well as optimize the data for mountain bike applications. Big impacts and sudden changes in traction aren’t common in road and a road power meter plugged into a mountain bike often contains power spikes and other inaccurate data. The Race Face Cinch Power Meter is made for mountain biking, of all types, just like Evan. Spandex and salad not required.

"cross training"

Guthrie's RF Next equipped Pivot LES rocking a Team Edition FOX 32 is his go-to choice for training rips.

not so secret training.

The Cinch Power Meter helps athletes track the ride: efforts on the climbs and recovery on the send.

The Cinch system allows for a power meter crankset to be swapped between bike builds with an 8mm Allen key and adjustment of the preload collar. But if Evan is changing riding styles, the power meter spindle can be easily swapped from his Next SL crank arms into Next R crank arms and back with a crank puller tool that is included in the box with the Cinch Power Meter

Enduro may be getting more technical, but the climbs can still make or break a race run.

Pedal churning with the Cinch Power Meter puts the information at your fingertips on Bluetooth and ANT head unit.

The Race Face Cinch Power Meter is shipping now to dealers near you!

The Cinch Power Meter gives you the tool to train for the Enduro and XC glory you truly deserve. Protected in your BB Shell, the Cinch Power Meter not only gives you the advantage you need to gauge your training and push your boundaries, but it does it with the compatibility and performance you have come to expect from Cinch. Thanks to the adaptable spindle, you can pick your poison from NEXT SL G4 to our Turbine R cranks, and with our Cinch App and both ANT+™ and Bluetooth®, you can hook it up to your favorite head unit and be on your way to the wattage cottage in no time.

@ThomDawson: hi5's! Hell yeah! Or if you were lucky a spooky metalhead and some sid dual crowns or an RST Alfalfa! Wow! If you had a Hayes cable actuated hydraulic disc you were basically royalty! Those my friend were the glory days! :-)

@cunning-linguist: a friend of mine had a Metalhead and another a Curtis, the kings and absolute envy of us all. Another had (and still has) a battered Saracen hardtail with Hi5s that nobody else could ride (due to the cranks not being and 180° amongst other things) that we nicknamed The Bodge. He dropped that thing about 12ft to flat in my mums back yard. Heady days.

@ThomDawson: I hesitated between the Hi5 and Judy XL, but already had an RST Mozo. I'd had enough of elastomers and was ready for the big time (and the killer discount - big up to JE James in Sheff). And 100 mm was already huge... Did I tell you about the war?

@BenPea: I had a 15” Kona Caldera that my dad welded a head tube gusset to between the top and downtube. All blacked out and lacquered to gloss. Think I had manitou xverts? With elastomers and the damper rod kept snapping but Manitou just kept sending new ones. Still gutted I sold that thing. I really wanted the eggplant Judy XL (?)

Awesome video. My thoughts as I was watching it: the industry marketers are trying to convince me that I need more and more travel so I need to buy a new bike, yet this guy is 100% better on an XC hardtail than I am on a six inch travel bike. It's me as the rider that's the limiting factor.

I really don't get the hate for power meters... it seems a bit duplicitous. Here on PinkBike, people obsess over tread patterns, handlebar width, hub spacing, head angles, chain stay length and a host of other minutiae. Yet when it comes to improving one of the center most important aspects of mountain biking, the engine (aka fitness) it's met with scorn and mockery... why? Because roadies use this same technology? C'mon.... seriously. Now if you just want to ride for fun, I totally get it. But if you're obsessing and arguing over half degrees of head angles and millimeters of chainstay length because you want to be fast, yet have a cave man approach to improving the engine (your fitness), then you're probably not as strong as you could be. A power meter is just a smart tool to bring structure and rigor in order to get faster.

It's the same reason people hate on Strava. They like to think that they're fast but don't want to put in the work to actually get fast. If they log into Strava they find out that actually they're quite slow, so they assume the people faster than them must be cheating, when in reality the fast people are working their asses off, riding six days/week, putting in road miles, using a power meter, etc. Power meters and Strava destroy people's fantasy with cold hard data that even though that guy in lycra passed them on the climb, they'd totally crush him on the downhill. They find out, huh, he's quite a bit faster than them on the downs too. In this day and age of everyone gets a ribbon their self-esteem just can't cope with that, so they lash out on the internet.

@SwintOrSlude: thanks! I'm not buying it! I'm not buying anything then. But I love when people count calories using electronic tools instead of tables and own weighing/ caloric intake experience that takes over a year to establish. That's a fricking dumbest thing one can do. Oh my Garmin says I burned 1200 calories on this 4h ride. Cool! Then check Strava that will tell you that you burned twice as much. You come home and you feel fresh, so you go on frenzy stuffing 4k calories into you. On another day, it says 800cal and you are wasted beyond belief, so according to this you should fill up the equivalent of 2 bowls of muesli or 3 peanut butter sandwiches. Good luck with that. It's all bullsht. Unless you have access to a real coach and real testing, you can go fk yourself with those gadgets. You pick up a strategy, stick to it for 6 months, observe your weight, numbers on the trainer, make notes on work out sheets and then you can readust or proceed. Nah! I'll spend 1600€ on power meter and kill miles on the road bike. Will make me rip faster. I've been believing this sht for 3 years. Spent so much time mashing miles and trying to get thinner, thinking it will make me great. Then got into the gym and started doing sprints, and became better than ever before within 2 months! Within a year I was able to ride behind the fastest in town.

Regarding power meter I just wanted to buy it for 3 months and sell it. But rading this I'm out of the deal.

@JVance: Yes, undeoubtedly. But right now I'm in a better spot. Just giving it time. Ih ave no money for a coach and testing, even though I know who to go to. I talked to some knowledgeable and at the same time kind people and they all told me to relax I had a huge blow into my stupid head lately with caliesthenics. I was training, doing sht, program, trying to stick to it. Went up to 60 push ups. Fast but quality ones, no crossfit bollocks. And then... I watched a video about scap push ups... I couldn't do 15. Then I tried to do a really high quality push up engaging scaps. Fricking 12. It's aaaa lot to learn. But I wonder, does anyone just pick up a coach and does it right from the start? If you got a guide, from jumping from street onto pavement, to whipping the hell out of crab apple bits. Would you follow it step by step?

@SwintOrSlude: Depends on you and how you pedal. All the single arm measurement systems have the same issue, you're only measuring 1/2 the power in theory, but not everyone splits 50/50 so that can cause massive error. For some people, the Stages work well.

Also, accuracy in a power meter is completely over rated, what you want is consistency/precision/repeat-ability. Doesn't really matter if it's off as long as it's consistently off for real world usage.

Also, you have to be really careful when reading reviews on power meters or even using one. How you're recording the data seems to be as important as the power unit itself. Different head units handle the data differently and can give you different readings from the same power unit. Some combos seem to work better together.

@WAKIdesigns: In the article they are comparing many units from each brand, if you are using the same power meter over and over then those accuracy results disappear. The unit may be high or low a certain %, but it will be high or low the same every time you use it, so you will still be able to see and measure changes.

@SwintOrSlude: When you apply that article to real life, all that means is that Stages under estimate your power compared to other power meters. As long as you avoid mixing and matching different brand power meters on your bikes that reason shouldn't really have any bearing on whether you buy one or not @WAKIdesigns

@IOMHENDO: The Stages also had the lowest precision, ie the lowest day-to-day reproducibility for the same power meter. As someone else mentioned, I wonder if can be influenced by the sampling rate of your head unit. Considering it's only measuring power for 1/2 of each pedal stroke if your head unit is just taking one reading per second, what happens if the reading is during your right leg downstroke, where the Stages doesn't record any power? I don't know, just a thought on why both the accuracy and precision could be off.

I've been running this for a few months during training and a couple of races with good results. Recently I updated to the 1.23 firmware, and started experiencing random dropouts. It was a little frustrating when I'm trying to do intervals at certain power thresholds. I just rolled it back to 1.21, and we will see if that resolves the issue.
Endurance season is starting soon, and I'm looking forward to using the power meter to keep my Pace a little more even than I was able to last year with just a heart rate monitor.

I've just started training with a p2m NGeco on a cx bike. While I can really see the benefits there, I'm a bit baffled how it would be utilized mounted on a mountain bike. Power delivery is so much different for different terrain, so I guess I'm asking how you use it for interval training? Do you run certain thresholds on repeated trail segments as intervals?

@velocitajano: It's more to be efficient at spending my energy. For instance I know I can in theory hold 340w for an hour, so during races I know I should not go above, say, 2 minutes over 450w or my fatigue level will not be optimal and in the long run. Anything above that is anaerobic and would fatigue me way faster. Also trying to smooth power has a drastic effect on fatigue. It's all optimization.

Whenever I ride a bunch of road or gravel I feel a lot stronger when I hit the trail on mtb. Long road rides are also great for endurance. If you aren't getting the benefits from road riding, then you just aren't riding hard and long enough. It's a different kind of workout but it def benefits you.

@SwintOrSlude: Well, is it?I am not sure why I would need it on a roadbike if a way cheaper HR (what I also should have) and cadence sensor should be enough. But for the off-road stuff this wont work that good because way different traction so, powermeter is there a good idea. Next question is if a armature really need all this fancy gadgets to improve their power.

However I like the next sl cranks ans I even use them on my fr. No problems so far. What went wrong with your powermeter?

@Serpentras: It just stopped working - cadence still works however. Awaiting feedback from RF as we speak.

As for why it's a better tool: it allows you to work on specific power zones (endurance, tempo, threshold, V02max, neuromuscular), which is more accurate than heart rate that can fluctuate quite a lot every day. Also, you can look at the training load, calculated both using HR and power, and see exactly when you should rest. Not for everyone for sure, but I love it for XC (so competitive mindset). Agree that it's useless if you just ride for fun.

@cunning-linguist: mountain bike is one of the tools. But power meter is very low on the list. I’d put weed and psychodelic mushrooms way ahead of any measuring device. As for others I could mention Olympic bar, chin bar, Dumb bells, smart phone, nutrition plan, spade for digging trails, an understanding partner. Never underestimate infertility.

@cunning-linguist: I was convinced by a coach it was road bike one season. Was a load of BS, all I ended up with was a drawer full of lycra and times identical to my no training plan seasons of riding up bf hills!

@Serpentras: In my opinion the real point of a power meter is to track how much power you can put out, how long you can sustain said power, as well as how many times you can do that effort. This is useful to track training progression. When combined with a hr monitor it can also give you an idea of how hard you are working to achieve a given power. This is helpful for road and mtn bikes. You don't need then to get faster or stronger, but they do have their merits and are useful tools.

Excellent way to integrate a power meter into the cinch system - props to RF. I do wonder why not a crank arm version though - since that's easier to swap across bikes.
Agree with comments - this is a good price for a power meter. If I were racing XC, would be very tempting. And I'd guess many enduro heroes are training with power meters too.

What if I get it wet and it breaks?What if I hit a rock and it breaks?What if a plug it up and it breaks?Will it be warranted if I buy it from online retailer, like Jensen USA or Chain Reaction, when it breaks?

@SwintOrSlude: You own one, I don't, so I believe you but don't understand. The one-sided power meters (Stages) are using a strain-gauged crankarm. If the sensor is in the spindle, not the crankarm, how is it only measuring one side?

@raceface - can you please address this question? Is it really only left side x 2 or is it measuring torque in the spindle from both sides?

@tsn73: Our Cinch power meter is a single sided design. It calculates power from a combination of left leg torque x2 and cadence. If you are interested in some more details, left leg torque is calculated from measurements of the small amount of deflection in the crank spindle when the rider applies force with the non-drive pedal and drives the chain via the spindle and the chainring. Cadence is calculated from signals from accelerometers inside the axle.

@raceface: I've been trying to get a hold of your customer service via email. Your products are great and I was really looking forward to testing the new Power Meter for my MTB. If you guys needs a rep for SoCa, I would be more than happy to help!

@hllclmbr: most of the top racers are using droppers as of this last season, with the exception of Nino... Even Julien Absalon is using one and he'd never even raced a full suspension bike before 2016...

It didn't died. This is a feature called imminent Next crank failure detector.
No wonder their prices are so high, you have to buy 3 times the parts for them to be profitable while sending a new crank every 6 months.

@raceface: I was more referring to the stats of wattage and power read-out management that this tech offers. I realize it's been around for a while and I'm not sure how many riders would care to know this data, unless you're a pro sponsored athlete trying to get an edge on competition in anyway possible. In the end, tech like this sucks the fun out of this simple sport. It's all just my sitting-at-the-bar-drinking too-many opinion which happens to mean nothing at all. I've been using RF products for close to 20 years now, this latest just isn't for me.

@Myfianceemademedoit: Tracking power output through wattage data can be a handy training tool no matter what level of racer/rider you are....being more fit is never a bad thing. But of course a power meter is not something that is needed to enjoying mountain biking - its just a tool we have available for riders. Mountain biking is still fun!!

It's just a training tool man. If you're racing and you want to try to accurately gauge training intensity and/or measure improvement then it's great. If you don't want any of that stuff don't get it and just ride your bike!

@tom666: I feel like if you’re racing at anywhere close to a level that anything more other than just trying hard matters this kind of stuff will be made available to you. And if you’re not at that level then f*cking forget about it and crack on trying to beat people. Just expensive toys that I’m not convinced we need in mtb. But I’ve never tried to break into the racing scene so I guess my opinion is totally irrelevant. Good job there’s a website for that.